This week in Indiana’s history …
1865 – Indiana ratified the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The measure abolished slavery in the nation. The General Assembly was prompt in approving the legislation, making Indiana one of 18 states to ratify the amendment in the first month. The adoption became official for the nation in December of 1865.
1901 – Indiana University competed in its first official basketball game. Over 100 fans traveled with the team by train to Indianapolis to play Butler University at the YMCA gym. Butler, coached by Walter Kelly, won the game by the score of 20 to 17. The IU team was coached by James H. Horne. Among the leading scorers were Carl McGaughey for Butler and Ernest Strange for IU.
1921 – Called the “musical sensation of the season,” Arturo Toscanini and the LaScala Orchestra performed at the Murat Theater in Indianapolis. The Italian maestro, on a tour of the nation, was brought to the city by the Talbot Fine Arts Association. The Barber of Seville led the program, followed by selections from Wagner, Dvorak, and DeSabata.
1931 – E. E. Miller, chief of the Richmond Fire Department, died while battling a fire in a city home. Called “The Dean of Indiana Fire Chiefs,” he had served as chief for 25 years. During much of that time, for a city its size, Richmond had one of the nation’s lowest rates of fire losses. Miller was also known for establishing the firefighter project of repairing broken toys for distribution to underprivileged children at Christmas time.
1958 – Indiana University drama student Richard Brown, dressed as Abraham Lincoln, stood near the northwest corner of Washington and Illinois streets in Indianapolis. There, at the site of the old Bates House Hotel, he reenacted the speech Lincoln had given from the hotel balcony on his way to inauguration 97 years earlier. Governor Harold W. Handley introduced Brown, just as Governor Oliver P. Morton had introduced Lincoln in 1861.
1982 – President Ronald Reagan was at the Indiana Statehouse to speak to the General Assembly. In his address in the chamber of the House of Representatives, he spoke about the new federalism policy which would return authority in many areas back to individual states. The President was welcomed to the city by Governor Robert D. Orr and Mayor William Hudnut.